Lucia's Birthday: Number Seven

Is the 14th too late to wish everyone "Happy December?"

These last few weeks have passed quickly, and much I could have written about here has gone un-chronicled - Dad's birthday, Chris' birthday, Mom's birthday, Thanksgiving, some extraordinary meals, at least a dozen stories about pets, and more than a smattering of tasteless political jokes about Republican presidential candidates, but I digress.

I also take advantage of this opportunity to get back on track and will start off with a shout-out to Lucia, who turned SEVEN on Thursday. 

How can she possibly be that old??

It seems like only last year when I dragged all manner of electronics to the birth center waiting room at Williamson Medical Center to attempt "live blogging" the birth of my sister's first child. Needless to say, the moment I was allowed into Sis' room to meet and photograph the new baby, all desire to communicate with the outside world evaporated, and since then little has changed when it comes to Lucia and her little sister.

If you're interested in a blast from the past, look here and here and here. 

We celebrated Lucia's birthday yesterday afternoon with presents, dinner, and cake at the Baby House. Unlike many kids her age, instead of requesting pizza, tacos, or cheeseburgers, Lucia asked her NanNan to make a big pot of pinto beans with rolls and cornbread. And Bundt cake - "not from Publix - no, no, no!" per the note Lucia had written and left on the refrigerator door.

I was tickled to death to arrive and find the girls proudly wearing "Pammy clothes" - Lu in her pink cherry dress and Bea in her dress with the bees.

Lu wanted a sewing kit from Jack and me, so I set her up with a whole box full of assorted goodies - three pairs of scissors (one for fabric, one for paper/patterns, and one for trimming), needles, needle-threader, ruler, pins and a magnetic pincushion, and a few other basic tools needed by the beginning seamstress. The gift included a book - Sewing School 1 - geared to kids her age and enough scraps from my rag bag and pieces of felt to get her started on some of the projects in the book.

I can't and don't expect her to immediately fall in love with sewing. If she does? Great. If not? That's cool. Lortt knows it's taken me plenty of years to hit my groove with it and really discover meaning in the creation of designs and clothing. I just want her to understand the tools and how there's this whole other way to be creative. I want her to understand doing "good work" without getting bogged down in too many details or allowing her sense of style be dictated by current trends or what anyone else thinks is going to "look good."

Along that same vein, Lucia had also requested a tiger print fleece coat after seeing one I made for myself about a month ago. When I initially purchased the fleece to make hers, I also purchased some plain, black lining for it, but I started thinking about myself and the clothes I've wanted to wear since I was Lu's age - the bright colors and loud prints that made my grandmother roll her eyes - and changed courses. Lu's coat got lined in hot green with hot pink polka-dots.

She loves it. Now, if the weather will just cool down a little bit, she can wear it. Or maybe just be really stylish and turn on some air conditioning. 

Yes, it's December and 70 degrees here in Tennessee. Seven years ago, the day after Lucia was born, the midstate was paralyzed by a sudden snowstorm. Today we ran our air conditioner for a couple of hours, because it was downright hot in this house.

Morning Person

Most trees are bare now, and dark comes at 4:30. Calendar be damned, fall is over, and my annual battle against seasonal affective disorder is fully engaged.

I was up before the sun this morning, because I've found that my best defense against too much dark is to experience every possible moment of natural light during the day. Early is my new routine, and I kind of like it.

Yeah, "morning Pam" goes against the night-person-late-sleeper thing I've always had going on, but I can't help it. Having read a number of articles about the best ways to battle seasonal depression and daylight deprivation, my best solution seems to be a non-pharmaceutical approach that considers our bodies' rhythms and cycles.

So far, so good.

Also, I've rediscovered my love of coffee, which really helps out in the mornings at at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, which is Dad's second-favorite time of day to drink coffee and a habit I probably should have adopted years ago.

I'm not much of a coffee-drinker during the warm months, but when frosty mornings roll around, I'm ready for a steaming mug of delicious and stimulating caffeine.

In preparation for the season, I purchased myself a new cup last week.

Made by local artisan, Amy Potter, this mug features a festive and popular sugar skull motif and holds 32 ounces.

Fill'er up!!

Lucia Joins The Mod Squad

In my excitement to share the nieces' fleeces, I let this little number I put together for Lucia slip through the cracks --

I bought the material on sale from fabric.com, which is a great website offering all kinds of interesting prints and textures that you just can't find at the neighborhood fabric store. In thinking of my own childhood, I was reminded of "The Electric Company" and a favorite three-ring-binder with bright Peter Max print on the cover and ordered some without giving it a second thought.

While shopping for fabric and trim is one of the in-person commerce experiences I enjoy and appreciate, online shopping has been fruitful and pleasant. All three purchases I've made from fabric.com have met or exceeded my expectations, so if you're in the market for project materials and want something unusual, don't be afraid to venture out onto the internet. I've also had nice experiences ordering from Mood. If you aren't sure about something, order a swatch and see for yourself.

Mood Fabrics

Fabric.com

The Nieces' Fleeces

Because I can't go too many days without embarking on a new sewing project, I've been behind the machine again. This time, I turned my attention the change of season and upcoming cooler weather to create cozy-but-stylish peplum jackets for Lucia and Beatrice.

Fleece has been on sale for less than four dollars a yard at my go-to fabric store, so I've loaded up on colors and prints that should serve the whole family well as temperatures dip and we feel the need to bundle into soft, cuddly, warm things.

Lucia is pretty easy to please. If something is pink, fancy, twirly and/or girly, she can generally find a way to love it, so I started with a piece of bubblegum-colored fleece, sparkly buttons, and a cute jacket pattern (McCall's 7236).

As is the case for most of my sewing projects, the trick was getting the fabric spread out on the table and cut without too much interference from The Cubs. Bill is notorious for wanting to "help," and his brother isn't much better, though Kinky usually takes more of a supervisory position at the top of the cat pole.

Once cut, Lu's jacket came together easily. Fleece is a very forgiving and easy fabric with just the right amounts of stretch and softness to drape well and finish without headaches. I'd only used fleece once before for Jack's and my Halloween costumes nearly ten years ago, and the fleece I used then was of an inferior quality and mostly purchased for the combination of its low price plus its ability to keep us from freezing to death at an outdoor party on the water. This had a much different look and feel than our "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" costumes -

As soon as I finished Lu's jacket, I launched into one of the same style for Beatrice but of a bright yellow fleece that will coordinate with at least two of the dresses I've made for her recently.

At this point, I must give a nod to Jack for having selected and purchased the child-sized hangers in these photos. As I've discussed before, little clothes on big hangers look downright weird, so "Yay, Jack!! Great choice."

How a garment looks on the hanger is one thing, but how it looks on the person for whom it's made is another. This time around, there was nothing to worry about -- check out the fit AND the smiles. Those girls are stylin'!!

Thanks for the photo, Sis!!

Let's Have Lunch! The Readyville Mill

From our connections on Facebook, Jack and I have heard nothing but good things about the food and service at The Readyville Mill in neighboring Cannon County, so when our good buddy, Brad, invited us to meet him for brunch there on Sunday, we wasted no time in saying, "Yes!"

The original mill was built in 1812 on the banks of the Stones River by town founder, Charles Ready, and was purchased by his daughter and her husband shortly after his death in 1859, only a few years before the mill was burned to the ground during the Civil War.

After the war, the mill was rebuilt and continued grinding corn and wheat for the next century. Over the years, the mill had a number of ownership changes, but continued to be operational until 1978 when it was closed despite having gained designation on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1973.

Jack actually remembers going to the mill as a child with his family and his mother purchasing bags of corn meal there.

The mill and surrounding structures sat empty and quiet until 2006 when the mill was purchased by its current owners, the Bradys, who began an extensive, three-year renovation and restoration to bring the Readyville Mill back to its former glory and more.

In 2009, it reopened as not only a functional grist mill but also a restaurant and event venue for social occasions like weddings and parties and has been gaining fans and patrons since then.

When we arrived at the hostess desk, we were asked if we had reservations, which we didn't. After being informed of a forty-five minute wait for seating, we were invited to explore the property and enjoy ourselves, which was easy and enjoyable on a beautiful, autumn day.

The grounds are lovely in a natural, unforced way. Structure and form are provided by a handsome limestone hill to the east side and the Stones River to the west. The displays of ancient machinery and other rusted treasure are organic and unforced. It's a beautiful place.

Once seated in the open, comfortable space of the dining room, service was prompt, friendly, and surprisingly unrushed, considering the burgeoning crowd accumulating outside.

The menu includes selections for breakfast, brunch, and lunch, but all three of us stuck to the breakfast menu, because that's what all of our friends told us to do, and peer pressure is a real thing.

Omelets are also a real thing, and this was a real omelet - three eggs with the cheese of my choice (Swiss) and mighty chunks of ham. Breakfast entrees come with two sides, and my choices were grits with smoked Gouda cheese and a short stack of "cinnamon swirl pancakes," which might seriously be my very favorite pancakes ever. I left omelet and grits on my plate, because the servings were so generous, but I made those pancakes freaking disappear - they were indescribably delicious, and I will eat them again. Soon.

The price of a meal is comparable to chains like Cracker Barrel and IHOP, but the quality of both food and experience is echelons higher and rank among the top of what Jack and I have eaten out in the past year.

Go there.

What's Blooming: Pineapple Sage

Back in the spring, Jack and I cleaned out what was once our tulip bed and planted a nice selection of herbs for our summer kitchen. We had high hopes for the basil, thyme, and tarragon, but a combination of bad rain timing and the early arrival of Japanese beetles dashed our hopes for piles of pesto and tidy bottles of herb-infused oils and vinegars waiting to bring joy to our friends and neighbors during the holidays.

The only thing that seemed to care about surviving the beetles and competing with the weeds was a lone Pineapple Sage plant. We've never grown it before, and I purchased the one plant after reading a facebook post from P. Allen Smith about how pretty it is as late-season bloomer with the added benefit of providing sustenance to migrating hummingbirds on their way south for the winter.

Over the course of the summer, it has grown with gusto, becoming tall and fountain-shaped as the weeks have progressed.

When it showed no signs of blooming by Labor Day, I began to think that despite strong stems and healthy foliage, conditions in our yard weren't what the plant needs to produce blooms, but I was wrong.

Interestingly enough, as soon as we moved past the Autumn Equinox a couple of weeks ago, the tips of each branch began to quickly produce bloom buds and within days, they began to pop open into a spectacular display of indescribable scarlet.

The leaves, when crushed between your fingers, do emit a delicate pineapple aroma, and the flowers are tender and slightly sweet. I haven't fully researched possible culinary uses for Pineapple Sage, but I will be. Tea is definitely on the list, but who knows what else?

After this year, Pineapple Sage is going at the top of the list for our spring greenhouse trip.

Bea's Cat Dress

Back in the summer Beatrice said, "I want a cat dress," and yesterday Pammy made it happen.

Still somewhat exhausted with the idea of collars and buttonholes, I selected a more simple design with an elasticized prairie neck and two-tier gathered skirt with a sash-tie back for additional fit around the waist.

The fabric was ridiculously inexpensive from the clearance table at Hancock's, and while the print is slightly off-grain, it is very soft and comfortable, and with forgiving design of the dress, the rows of cats aren't noticeably crooked.

With cooler weather quickly approaching, I thought a coordinating scarf might be a nice accessory, and because homemade bias tape is currently my favorite thing, I tried out my binding foot to make one. 

Once I figured out what I was doing with the foot, the scarf was finished in less than fifteen minutes and looks perfect with the dress.

I may do something else to those sleeves, because they still don't look quite finished.

Goodbye, Satellite

Jack installed our DirecTV dish in 1999, shortly after we moved here "for good."

We spent the first two years of our relationship living in the historic Anderson family home in McMinnville, enjoying the benefits of being in town: being close to a grocery store, getting pizza delivery, and having cable.

"Good TV" was one of the things I missed most when I moved from Nashville to the sticks in 1993, but I wasn't willing to go to extremes. My next-door-neighbor, Sonny, had clear-cut his yard to make room for a big-as-NASA satellite dish for the exclusive purpose of watching UT football games, NASCAR races, and Grand Ole Opry broadcasts. 

I knew people with satellite dishes. They could watch commercial-free "Days of Our Lives" at 4 o'clock in the morning, hours before the perils of Bo and Hope revealed to the rest of us. We had one at the local hospital where I worked. It was specifically wired for the entertainment of the on-call ER doctors in their lounge, and from what I could tell during my brief trips into The Lair of the Wretched, there was nothing for me on the satellite. Korean midget porn and Czechoslovakian tractor pulls are fascinating in theory but not my thing.

Before getting serious and moving in with Jack in late 1997, I'd subsisted with the hand-me-down television my grandparents had given me when I moved into this joint and the antenna that came with the place. 

I'd been using needle-nose pliers to change channels on the TV (and set the timer on the microwave) for so long that it didn't register with me that either wasn't normal.

Our third night here as permanent residents, a thunderstorm took out the antenna. A big branch hit it, and we never put it back up.

Jack came home from WalMart with a DirecTV dish and installed it at the south end of the house on a cedar pole. He ran the wiring into the house and up through the wall to our new television. We called a 1-800 number, gave our credit card information, and our dependence on the DirecTeat started.

I've calculated how much Jack and I have spent on "television" since then, but I'm ashamed to say what it is. Even though we haven't had premium channels in years, the cost for basic service month after month, year after year is staggering.

Several months ago, we purchased an Amazon FireStick and have been using it for our television viewing on an increasing basis. Our Amazon Prime membership gives us access to all kinds of movies, television shows, and music. The original programming is exceptional, and we're still able to watch most of our favorite television shows and stay current on both local and national news. We can also access our Netflix account and the massively available content there. The YouTube app is free and brings a whole new facet to streaming.

As of last evening, it's been four weeks since we've watched anything DirecTV. While we've paid for the service, this has been a test of whether we really need or want it, and the answer is "no."

Monday we disconnect. We aren't under contract. We won't miss it.

Goodbye, satellite

Bonus Material

Next-door-neighbor, Sonny, was famous in some circles. He played pedal-steel guitar for a number of country music's biggest stars "back in the day." Watch for him at about the 54 second mark, doing his thing and looking handsome.

Dinner Company

Last night we had another wild critter visitor.

And before anyone asks - no, we haven't started feeding raccoons, because that's trouble with a capital everything.

With the arrival of fall, we've seen increased activity from the squirrels and chipmunks in our yard, and that bowl of walnuts, which neither smell nor taste like something people should eat, was placed on the deck to draw them close to the sliding glass doors for the amusement of the dogs and cats. And us.

One brave chipmunk has entertained us the last several afternoons with his scurrying about and insanely expandable cheeks. Watching him is like having a hamster, but there's no smelly aquarium to be cleaned of urine soaked wood shavings and hamster turds (hamsturds?) every four or five days. Jack and I are, quite seriously, as fascinated by him as the pets.

Last evening, as Jack and I were winding down and thinking about heading to bed, Jack suddenly said, "There went a raccoon," and pointed toward the door.

As I looked over, sure enough, a little raccoon carefully walked out of the shadows and approached the chipmunk bowl. He looked at us through the window and was unconcerned when I approached to take his picture with my cell phone camera.

Diva wandered up, and we stood there together as the raccoon checked out the stinky walnuts and tried to figure out what kind of creatures we are. 

Diva didn't know what to think. She'd just had a bath and endured the trauma of me trimming her soft-from-the-tub toenails. I believe she thinks she was seeing things.

The chipmunk station is getting moved for the evening, because we can't have this, but it was still really cool to see.

Rainy Afternoon

I feel lazy this afternoon. A hard rain is falling, and there are rumbles of thunder. Jack has rolled to town for provisions, and not a creature is stirring but me, if the movements of my fingers on the keyboard counts as "stirring."

The dogs are at their battle stations and laying low. Diva hates storms to begin with, but add the occasional "BANG!" of an acorn hitting our metal roof to the mix, and she acts like we're being invaded by all the king's horses and all the king's men. As soon as the hard weather passes, I'm sure we'll return to our regularly-scheduled programming, which looks something like this:

That's Omar, our most recent rescue, in the middle. He's fitting into the family both literally and figuratively. While he mostly hangs with Bill and Kinky, whom we affectionately call "The Cubs," he's not opposing to snuggling up with anybody when nap time rolls around.

I Know Everybody's Tired of Reading about These Dresses, but...

Yes, folks - Lu and Bea love their new dresses. Both were a perfect fit, too.

Like Hannibal from "The A-Team" said at the climax of every episode, "I love it when a plan comes together."

I'd picked up a roll of yellow grosgrain ribbon at Hancock's at some point for some reason and made the last minute decision to create a hair barette for Beatrice using one of the art buttons I'd decided against using on the dress itself.

That's the bow pinned to the dress.

The bow ended up being the perfect accessory for Bea's little dress, and after dropping both pieces off with Mom and Dad to be delivered along with Lu's cherry dress, to the girls in Franklin, I felt guilty that Lucia didn't have anything special to go with hers. Yeah, I'd made her a yellow barrette to match Bea's, but it still wasn't "equal," and I felt that to not at least make an effort to put something special together was being a "bad Pammy."

There weren't many scraps from the cherry dress, but I'd already turned the leftovers into some one-inch bias tape, which provided a starting point. I found a length of rose-colored purchased bias tape from a previous project in a box of odds and ends. Using the edge-joining foot from my new set of presser feet and some tinsel thread I purchased because it was fun and sparkly and on sale for half price, I turned the two pieces of bias tape into a unique ribbon.

Digging more deeply into the scrap box, I discovered the remains of the silver cord I used for Lucia's "50's Day" skirt last year as well as a handful of sequins and a small jar of beads and charms from broken costume jewelry.

The bow ended up being so big and heavy, it didn't sit well on the small barrette form I'd used for the yellow bows, so I mounted it on a heavy plastic comb for thick hair like Lucia (and the rest of us) have.

Jack test piloted it over his ponytail to make sure it would stay securely in place.

Dudley test piloted it for our pure, unadulterated amusement. And now yours.

I set the clock for early Monday morning and delivered the new bow with time to spare before Mom had to leave for Franklin.

The smiles on their faces in the photo 'up top' say it all.

A Nighttime Visitor

Jack has been busy lately with several around-the-house projects, and one of them was a refurbishment of our garbage trailer.

Without the convenience of curbside pick-up, county-dwellers like us have to lug our trash to the dump, and for the last several years, Jack and I have used a small trailer Jack purchased secondhand shortly after we moved from McMinnville and needed a better way to transport bags of sometimes drippy, smelly bags of garbage than in the back compartment of our SUV.

The trailer has served us well, but it was looking AND getting rickety. The sides were in bad shape and susceptible to critter invasion, the lights no longer worked properly, and the frame was plagued by rusty patches.

After coming up with a plan, Jack launched into his project, carefully measuring and cutting two-by-fours and rabbit wire to build secure new side panels, painting the frame, and installing a new light kit.

His hard work resulted in a trailer that looks brand-new and is actually street-legal.

And all this time we'd been blaming raccoons for the infiltration of our garbage when the culprit is actually a healthy-looking opossum.

Jack used the "new" cart for the first time Tuesday, and while walking the dog that evening, he spied our visitor, perched on the side of the cart, looking sad because there were no garbage bags for him (or her) to rummage. 

Neither of us have ever looked an opossum and thought, "how cute," before, but this one is kind of adorable with crinkly whiskers over his eyes and a perfectly pink nose.

His photos were a big hit on facebook.

Finished: The Bee Dress

I need to get some child-sized hangers, because this just looks weird.

Bea's dress is finished, and it's completely lovable. 

Despite the problems I had with the collar facing, the brain fart I had when attaching the skirt to the bodice and another trip through buttonhole hell, the effort was totally worth it. Little is more satisfying to me than working my way through a big challenge and learning things along the way.

Having a machine with automatic buttonholing is definitely better than having to do them by hand or create them with a regular zig-zag stitch, but they aren't foolproof. Not by a long shot. The first two went in perfectly, but the last one had me pulling out my trusty seam ripper, swearing under my breath, and holding a small LED flashlight between my teeth to make sure I was actually removing buttonhole stitches instead of poking ruinous holes in the bodice. "Third time's a charm," as the old saying goes for apparently a good reason.

The vintage buttons from Ma-Ma Harris' sewing kit look perfect and seem sound, even though they're plastic and nearly as old as I am.

One new technique I used on this project was blind-hemming using the machine, and even though I've never done it before, the process was smooth and quite easy after a bit of practice on some scrap fabric.

The result is a hem that looks hand-stitched and professional instead of the typical narrow machine hem, and I will absolutely be using it again.

The blind-hem foot came with a set of presser feet I recently ordered from Amazon on a whim, because it was only $25, and I am my mother's daughter - 

"If it's as good as they say it is for this price, great. If not, I'll send it back."

Thirty-four of them!! I have no idea how these cost less than a dollar apiece. They're of comparable quality to what came with my machine, and other than they aren't labeled with standard numbers and/or letters and came with no instructions whatsoever, they have the same craftsmanship, and let's face it, there's a YouTube video for everything. Type in, "braid foot tutorial" or "machine blind hemming," and take your pick of sewing goddesses ready to show you exactly how to use one.

My transition in to a sewing nerd continues.

I promise I will write about other things again soon.

Catching a Buzz: Beatrice's Bee Dress

Bea's "bee dress" is almost finished and already fabulous, but I can't wait to be done with it.

I haven't had to take it apart and put it back together again as many times as Lucia's cherry dress, which is made from the same pattern, but it's still been a bitch.

The hefty, denim-weight fabric will be great for keeping Beatrice warm this winter when she wants to wear a dress on a cold day, and the print is simply delightful, but being thick and substantial created problems when it came time to band the collar seam. The bias tape I made from scratch didn't have enough give, so I cannabilized some yellow jersey left over from the summer wardrobe project. The result is "don't look too closely," but it works.

I was really proud of myself this afternoon when I got the skirt attached to the bodice but quickly realized that the pockets opened to the back of the dress instead of the front, proving once again that no project is complete until the seam ripper makes an appearance.

The skirt has been reattached with proper orientation of pockets, and the project actually looks like a dress.

I still have to hem it and do the buttons and buttonholes, but that's why we have tomorrow, and I'm too tired to embark on such tasks this evening.

The buttons are vintage - I found them Ma-Ma Harris' sewing box, and they're probably 40 years old. Beautiful, simple, and perfect for this dress. I ordered bee-shaped art buttons from Amazon, but with the print fabric and everything else going on with this design, a simple, beautiful, neutral button is in order.

Fifty cents for four buttons? Yes, that was a long time ago.

An Evening Out: Jimmy Webb at City Winery

Sometimes what you really need is an outing - something entertaining and wonderful, yet familiar.

Jack and I had one Saturday night when we saw the legendary Jimmy Webb perform at City Winery in Nashville.

We've always been fans of Jimmy's music, but who isn't? Galveston, Wichita, McArthur Park. Those are the places, Jimmy wrote the songs, and Saturday night we heard them.

Near the end of his performance, Jimmy stopped and recognized the people at one of the tables near the stage - Glen Campbell's family. They got a standing ovation, and I wasn't alone in wiping a few nostalgic tears

I was younger than Beatrice when "Up, Up and Away" was a hit in 1967, but I know all the words, and when Jimmy asked the audience to sing along during the chorus, I did. Everybody did.

For Jack, seeing one of his long-time idols in such an intimate setting was a near-spiritual experience, and after the show, Jimmy made himself available for a meet-and-greet in the lobby, so we stood in line, got a CD autographed, and had a few moments to talk with him. I thanked him for all the great music and memories without sounding too, too starstruck or saying something stupid about how many of my mom's piano books from way back contain his songs. It was on the tip of my tongue, but I found my restraint in time.

A high point of the evening for me, though, was the expression on my husband's face when Jimmy looked over to him, nodded toward the ponytail, and asked, "Jack, are you a songwriter?"

Jack popped an ear-to-ear grin of indescribable elation, and even though he had to admit that no, he is not a song writer, it was still a very special moment. One neither of us will ever forget.

Jimmy Webb and Jack after the City Winery show.

This is from 1971 (!!) but it's still a favorite:

Dudley and Josie Get Their Nails Did

If I went to our pet supply cabinet and came out with the toenail trimmers right now, Dudley would scamper to the back corner of the house and hide under the bed for hours. I know that's what he would do, because that's what he always does.

He hides because I'm horrible at giving him a mani-pedi and always, ALWAYS end up cutting a nail or two so short that they bleed, and whether I do or not, he screams like I'm killing him, and it's just a bad scene all the way around.

Since he and Josie were both sporting long, painful-looking nails, I made an appointment and took the two of them in for a trim at our vet's office last week.

I expected the worst. Josie can be a hateful and snappy pain in the neck when she's unhappy, and Dudley can be the biggest drama queen in the world at the drop of a hat, but they were both well-behaved, and Dudley downright enjoyed himself.

If he says differently, show him this picture and call him a liar.

I finished Lucia's cherry dress, and it's gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

My fingers are crossed that she will love and enjoy it.

The buttonholes ended up being a total pain, and I redid them three times before I was satisfied, but I'm rarely happy with buttonholes the first time I do them, and I'm still getting accustomed to the different options on my machine. Once I got them done to my satisfaction, they were great, but it's a process.

Up next, I'm making the same style dress for Beatrice, but the fabric and buttons are different. Instead of cherries, hers will feature bees. I can't seem to get the photo to upload, but this dress is going to be awesome.

The fabric is a soft twill with yellow and white bees and flowers on a black background, and I ordered some bee-shaped buttons from Amazon. I haven't decided if I'm going to use them on this project or not, because they might be well into "too much" territory with the very graphic fabric, but we shall see. My fall-back position includes shiny dark yellow buttons and using bee buttons on a solid black corduroy or velveteen jumper where they'll really "pop" and have some impact.

OK, "black velveteen jumpers" just went on the "to do" list, because they will be the perfect and stylish foundation for all kinds of outfits throughout fall and winter. And scratch the bee buttons. These will need something classic and basic.

Maybe something with rhinestones.

Because bling is good.

My Favorite Thing I've Ever Made

Every time I'm working on a new sewing project, I get it almost finished before proclaiming, "This is maybe my favorite thing I've ever made," which is a big lie from the get-go, because my favorite thing I've ever made is the three-quarter-length fake leopard swing coat with black satin sheet lining I've been wearing to special events in really cold weather for the last twenty-five years. It's nothing too fancy or special, and when I purchased the fabric, it wasn't expensive, but this coat is a real looker and never fails to garner compliments. It is also very warm and has room for at least three people inside.

I digress.

Because I've had some "real work" to do and a couple of home projects underway, I haven't devoted as much time to my sewing in the past few weeks, but I have managed to complete a couple of things, and surprise, y'all, they're for grown-ups.

There was a butterfly shirt for a dear, sweet friend who's going through major life shit, which went from this sketch on a pad --

-- through this process...

-- to become this awesome shirt.

And thanks to the involvement of her scheming wife for confirmation of my measurement estimates, it fit! 

So did the matching patio shorts, so she is completely ready to kick back and watch ALL the upcoming University of Tennessee football games in the coordinated comfort of orange and white tie-dye.

Jack wanted patio pants for himself and selected a gorgeous lemon print cotton during one of our more recent trips to the fabric store. 

He was so tickled with them that he agreed to model them for me and even pulled out his saxophone to show off just how cool these pants are.

We don't have a patio, so we did the photo shoot on our porch.

I call this one the "Abercrombie & Fitch" shot for obvious reasons. HA!!

Since adult clothes are big, unwieldy, and difficult to cut out on our small dining table, I returned to the kid's department for my current project, a fall to spring dress for Lucia from a delightful, retro-look cherry print.

This is a new design for me, and I basically stuck to the pattern and instructions, though I already have a couple of revisions in mind for the next time I make one of these:

It still needs buttonholes, buttons, a hem, and that last good pressing when I trim off the remaining little strings and use my trusty seam-ripper to remove any visible gathering threads or stay-stitching, but I already know Lucia will love it. I do. 

It may be my favorite thing I've ever made.

Today was sad. The last few days have been sad.

Venus, our beloved friend and companion, has been fighting an aggressive form of cancer since winter, and this morning, we said goodbye to her.

Jack and I have known since her diagnosis that this time would come, that the cancer would steal her from us bit by bit, cell by cell, and that our love and compassion for her would bring a hard decision to our hearts and hands. 

Diva and Venus. 07/11/2015

I've written about Venus before - how she came to us from the woods as a wild, starving kitten to thrive in our home and become a pillar of our family. She was fearless in all things except the cat carrier and has been best friends with more of our dogs than I can count on one hand.

He's gloom. Shes' doom.

Hairdo.

Her absence is obvious. She was the cat beside us on the couch, the cat wedged up by Dudley on the dog bed in the corner or by Diva or Josie on the other dog bed in the other corner. She was on the cat table reminding us to shake out a few more handfuls of kibble or freshen the water dish. She could be weird, but she was a cat, and weirdness is expected.

Our family is different tonight. The dogs are quiet. Carlton and FuzzKitty have found soft places. The children cats are playing gently in another room.

Peace to us. Peace to you all.